[Thalla]

What a performance that was by team India. I haven't seen any team thrashed England like this in a test match for a very long time.

[schumi_pete]

Rohit Sharma was excellent with his field placings and captaincy from the morning of the third day. He realized that with Duckett especially, you have to bowl within the line of the stumps and keep the fielders in the deep that cuts out his boundaries, because he just cannot go for any stretch of time without a release shot. To an extent, it is applicable to nearly all English batsmen because they are wired that way, and they don't have the defence to see out four sessions in India.

The problem with Bazball as it has morphed into is that you starve the English batsmen of boundaries, and they are bound to go searching for one sooner rather than later. At least that is how it appears to me from the outside.

In Test matches, I would much prefer to bat time and put lots of miles in the legs of the opposition bowlers, especially in a five Test series. I would have ideally liked India to have kept England in the field until 20 minutes after tea because there was ample time to get them out anyway. Keeping the opposition out on the field for however long it is possible under a scorching sun will pay dividends later on.

Jaiswal and Sarfaraz taking them to the cleaners was a delight to watch and I hope we get to see more of it in the coming Tests.

[SoumenD]

Two matches back to back Jaiswal hitting double centuries but Jadeja(deservingly) taking away the MoM awards. Gill too had nearly back to back centuries and not even in contention for the award. Damn!!!

England are known for bazzball but here India seems to have got it better with these new age players

[Rahkehs]

Sir Ravindra Jadeja is arguably the greatest match winner for India in home condition. Always makes runs in difficult situations and rips through the opponents especially in 4th innings, although the conditions may seem to be favourable for batsmen. I remember the test where Karun Nair got triple century, India made 700+ runs and wicket seemed flat but Jadeja ran through English batmen and took 7 wickets.
He has got 9 MoMs in just 70 tests!

[deehunk]

Kapil Dev quit after Lara came down the pitch and smashed him in an ODI series, that was how the players thought about their pride. Here we see Anderson just wasting his time for reaching the 700 wickets milestone.

[ValarMorghulis]

What a fantastic match. India is such a flow is joy to watch.

Jaiswal was fabulous and a sure shot opener in the coming series. I still think Kohli walks in this team easily for Patidar.
Would love to see Sarfaraz succeed more in India and abroad.
Jurel was good too. Don't think KS or Samson are making back (ideally KL should keep across formats).

PS: Don't think Bumrah bowled enough to warrant a rest in the next test. Go and trounce the English 3-1 and then rest in the last test (I'd prefer no rest then too, but...)

[Shreyans_Jain]

Originally Posted by ValarMorghulis

Jurel was good too. Don't think KS or Samson are making back (ideally KL should keep across formats).

PS: Don't think Bumrah bowled enough to warrant a rest in the next test. Go and trounce the English 3-1 and then rest in the last test (I'd prefer no rest then too, but...)

I don’t think there is any place for KL in the T20 side, especially with Kohli playing. Can’t have two guys who take their time to settle in. KL is notoriously slow initially. In ODIs and tests though, he makes for the first choice keeper on merit.

Bumrah is perhaps the only real all format player we have, and is by far the best fast bowler of the lot. He HAS TO be kept wrapped in cotton wool and used judiciously. Now that the team is 2-1 up and the batting order looks so much more settled than in the first test, the guy can be given a break.

[deathwalkr]

Originally Posted by dailydriver

H

However, more than his runs, one particular run from the non striker's end caught my (& many others') attention. When Jaiswal was running for his two hundredth run, this was the scene on the pitch.

Gentleman's game indeed!

A picture for the ages! Good photo by the photographer capturing the joy and emotions.

Well played team

[vamsi.kona]

Bumrah shouldn't be played in bilateral T20's and ODI's as well except for a few matches before say a WC. Let him play IPL for T20's. Any T20 or ODI should be to just give him some match practice before a tournament. We have good enough pace bowling resources that need to be tried in match situations at international level. The drawback during Kohli captaincy is that the management of up coming talent was lacking a bit. We had young fast bowlers lining up but now they are no more knocking the door.

[SidTheChamp]

Originally Posted by Thalla

What a performance that was by team India. I haven't seen any team thrashed England like this in a test match for a very long time.

Utterly disappointing by England. Winning is fun if the match had some fight in it. While the first two tests were competitive, this one has been an utter disaster. If you can't bat, cant bowl and additionally drop catches or throw away wickets at crucial moments, then nothing can save you.

Originally Posted by SoumenD

England are known for bazzball but here India seems to have got it better with these new age players

Bazball was an initiative to have a positive outlook in Tests i.e go for results instead of boring draws. The hype that it created brought a lot of interest in Test matches featuring England. But the pitfall it creates is that there will be some crazy Bazball actions which will ruin everything. Like the unnecessary reverse scoop of Root in this match or the declaration in first day of Ashes Test by Stokes. Test matches have been going around for 150 years and the theories are built on solid ground. Initiative like Bazball is fine but don't overlook the standard theories.
The core problem is that England is not performing in the basics i.e batting and bowling. Their best batter Root has totally flopped in batting and so is Bairstow. Stokes is a shadow of himself. And the bowlers aren't effective at all. In between all these , they have to defend their Bazball hype and do some crazy stunts.

Originally Posted by deehunk

Kapil Dev quit after Lara came down the pitch and smashed him in an ODI series, that was how the players thought about their pride. Here we see Anderson just wasting his time for reaching the 700 wickets milestone.

You have a point but they don't have a great replacement for Anderson. Wood flopped in first test. Anderson picked some wickets in second test. In third test, Wood was effective only in first half an hour.
Ollie Robinson is injured I heard. I think Chris Oakes is not selected or not available. Anyways, foreign pacers have always been less effective in Indian conditions. The spinners are ineffective and our batsmen have always been the best in playing spin.

So England need to fire at all guns, else another two brutal loses await

[PreludeSH]

I think everyone is concentrating on England's batting. Giving away so many runs and thinking you can chase any target irrespective of conditions is stupid. We saw LBWs when they were trying to hit the bowlers. With spin especially on our pitches towards the end of game, you have to wait for bad balls which is what tests are about.

Their bowling needs to improve if they have to win. Their spinners are not great and their fast bowling in our conditions is not up to mar.

[Shumi_21]

Sucks to be Joe Root right now, who is perhaps the only likeable player in this English side apart from Stokes. Poor Joe bowled the highest number of overs for England and somehow managed to bowl better than their specialist spinners too. And his possibly fatigue induced failed attempt to reverse ramp Bumrah is now being blamed as the sole reason for England's drubbing.

What's worse is that Stokes indirectly threw Joe under the bus by saying
He got out to it, and it's not a shot you necessarily see Test match players playing"

And thereby violating the first commandment of the cult of Bazball: Thou shalt not blame thee players for risky shots. The English media and punditry have predictably latched on to this and have focused all their criticism rather harshly on Root, giving the real culprit (Bazball) a free pass.

Although I'm enjoying the meltdown, especially the digs from the Australians, can't help but feel bad for Joe.

[ValarMorghulis]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

I don’t think there is any place for KL in the T20 side, especially with Kohli playing...

Sigh.. let's not castigate our best T20 player (2022 T20 TC) by comparing him with other non-performers. I guess we'll see who makes it to the T20 2024 WC team based on IPL.

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

...He HAS TO be kept wrapped in cotton wool and used judiciously. Now that the team is 2-1 up and the batting order looks so much more settled than in the first test, the guy can be given a break.

But should he? I mean Cummins plays non-stop. So do most other top bowlers.
National duties come first, if Bumrah wants to rest, he can ask the IPL franchise or even the national selectors for some rest.

My point is: These are ace professional cricketers. Let them play.

[padmrajravi]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

I don’t think there is any place for KL in the T20 side, especially with Kohli playing. Can’t have two guys who take their time to settle in. KL is notoriously slow initially. In ODIs and tests though, he makes for the first choice keeper on merit.

But the team management seems to play him as a pure batsman in Tests, not a wicketkeeper batsman. Is he a good enough batsman in Tests to walk into the team only based on that, if he is not keeping? He was good in SENA conditions in a few matches. That is a positive. But if you look solely into numbers, he averages less than Jadeja. And Jadeja has two more core skills where he is the best in the world. I guess, that's Jadeja being superhuman. If KL keeps in tests, then he becomes eligible for captiancy in a few years time. He will be the only experienced player who walks into ODI and Test team other than Bumrah.

On the spinning front, Ashwin and Jadeja are not only the best in bowling, but they are also good enough batters and have bailed us out in so many clutch situations with just their batting. It is going to be very tough to replace those two now that they are both 35 and 37. Even in this test, it was Jadeja, Ashwin and Bumrah who bailed us with their batting in first innings.

[Eddy]

Originally Posted by ValarMorghulis

I mean Cummins plays non-stop.

Cummins, Hazlewood, and Starc hunt as a trio and have beautiful rhythmic actions, unlike Bumrah. The latter will always be more injury-prone because he is the sole go-to seamer and has a very stressful action.